Too weak to move, too cold to even try, Conor passed out.
The darkness took him.
When he woke up, he would find himself in the arms of a nearby homesteader who’d arrived to check his fish trap.
Within hours, he was taken to the hospital, all the while too traumatized to speak of the horrors he’d endured.
Jem and Dom had not let Conor down.
They’d ran back to town for help.
Within no time, the police were dispatched and scouring the outskirts of Blackwater.
“You played a game of Hide and Seek,” one police officer had said. “Who’s to say the boy didn’t go home? He must have. He would have.”
“He didn’t,” Dom had argued.
“But you said he was scared.”
“He hid.”
“But you didn’t see which way he went.”
“I was burying myself in the leaves. I was paying more mind to Jem. Jem was running all over the place.”
“I was trying to find a spot,” Jem said weakly, staring down at the ground. “It’s my fault.”
“I think the boy tried to go home,” the officer continued, buried in his own narrative. “I think if something happened, and I very much doubt anything happened, it was likely on his way back.”
Dominic continued shaking his head. It made no sense. Why would the officer keep saying that? He argued over and over again that it was not true, but the officer had stopped paying him mind. He brushed him aside, called his folks and just like that, the boys were being discarded.
How was this possible?
“But there was a man! There was a man we ran into!” Dominic began to shout. “He was wearing a green jacket. Conor went back for him! Conor’s still out there!”
But Conor was found before the night even crept in.
The officers said he’d fallen over the cliff, that his memory wasn’t clear, and now he was doped up on painkillers. The fall had broken his arm, and as he’d drifted, he’d hit his mouth on something sharp.
Conor wasn’t the best witness for now.
He needed rest.
The boys needed it too, the police officer had urged.
Dominic stared up in disbelief at the man – the officer man with the cold smile – and continued shaking his head.
“It doesn’t make sense!” he argued in vain.
“No, it makes perfect sense,” the officer returned firmly. “The boy always hides in one spot. He didn’t this time because he had left. He was too scared. The thunder frightened him. Your friend Jem even waved a knife around his face, you said so yourself. To assume he would suddenly hide somewhere you couldn’t find him? That doesn’t make sense.”
Dom felt helpless.
That wasn’t what happened.
It made no sense.
They had twisted his words.
He glared at the man and at anyone who would look at him. He tried, he tried to argue, but they didn’t listen.
He would later learn it would always be like this.
Blackwater with its cold looking officers, with its green coated men, with its black hearted secrets.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Charlotte
With a soft sigh, I dreaded my next question. “What are the conditions, Locke?”
Looking satisfied, he slowly slid his tie off and chucked it on the counter. He didn’t look elsewhere as he started to unbutton his dress shirt. My heart started speeding in my chest and my mind went crazy with wild ideas.
Surely not.
He wouldn’t expect anything indecent to happen between us. I wouldn’t allow it, no way.
He slid the top off and my breath caught in my throat as he slowly filled the gap between us. Stopping in front of me, he demanded, “What I want is your complete and utter compliance. What happens between us stays between us.
“Starting now.”
My eyes dropped to his chest, my mouth fell open at the sight before me. All along his chest and stomach were tiny gold bars taped against his skin in neat little rows.
“What is this?” I whispered in shock.
“A deal gone bad,” he replied, tilting his chin for me to come closer. “Peel them off.”
I shot him a wary look. “Locke.”
His eyes didn’t leave mine. They looked hard, commanding. “Peel them off, Charlotte.”
I took a hesitant step forward and brought my hands up, hesitating for a moment. I didn’t know where to begin. He watched me intently as I finally settled on a random row and began sliding my nails beneath the white tape. I noticed it didn’t pull away easily. I winced at the horrible red line it left behind when I used a little more force.